Research shows that when you have a bellylaugh you breathe in six times more oxygen. When was the last time you laughed like that? Just reading this may remind you of the physical experience of laughter, the way the whole body joins in. Thinking mind is given a vacation, the breath is full, and any vague sense of detachment falls away. In zazen, a lot of this is also true, but not often with the sense of mirth that fill us in the whole-body rhythm of a good laugh. By the time we’re adults we may have become so tight that we don’t laugh like that anymore, or at all. You’re probably familiar with Hotei, the laughing Buddha who was a Chinese monk that is said to have lived over 1,000 ago. We see him with a huge relaxed belly and arms flung up in full delight. Legend has it that if one rubs the Laughing Buddha’s great belly you’ll have wealth, good luck and prosperity. This is one way of expressing the sense that we get in our practice when we are open and wholly engaged, rubbing the belly of this moment. There is definitely a sense of greater well-being and ease. May we all remember to let ourselves laugh, bringing the enlightenment factor of joy into the abundant mix of this human life.
